February 25, 2013 — A Lovely Sunday

A final look back at this little paradise before leaving

Koi bidding us farewell in the entryway pool

Lynn and Penny about to call it a day

Shadows on that gorgeous wall

The stunning mud brick wall behind reflecting pool

My new friend, Penny, midway through her meal

Part of the makings for duck tacos. Yum!

My beautiful salad at Los Danzantes

more parade

The ongoing parade of people walking by

Looking across the street to the park

In the entryway at 100% Natural

Our view of the band from our walkway behind them

Captivating little girl beyond full of energy

Cinda and Barbara at breakfast

 Sunday morning entertainment at 100% Natural

Yesterday I began the day by meeting Cinda and Barbara at 100% Natural for breakfast. We sat at a window table with a full view of the Zumba exercisers across the street in the park. This was Barbara's last day in Oaxaca. Always a mixed feeling seems to prevail. Happy to be moving on but sad to be leaving Oaxaca. I brought them back to my room in the courtyard to see my new top with the fantastically fine embroidery. Everyone thinks I should hang it on my balcony but I think I should wear it. Maybe a little of both would be possible. It is natural brown Mexican cotton with very fine, patterned embroidery. I've never had a piece quite like it. Do I sound happy?

After Cinda and Barbara left I went to the Zocolo with Lynn where we found all chairs taken for the Oaxaca State Band performance about to begin. We finally found a spot in the shade in the walkway area behind the band. Not bad at all and a thousand times better than trying to stand in the sun in front of them. While sitting there I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. We found we had all kinds of interests in common and I eventually introduced her to Lynn, Pat and Jim who were by that time standing with us at the end of the concert. Penny (the new acquaintance), Lynn and I decided we would walk to a restaurant I had been wanting to try. We located it fairly easily along Macedonio  Alcala and entered a lovely new environment with great anticipation.

We were warmly welcomed to "Los Danzantes" by several staff members and our afternoon began. We chose to sit as close as possible to the stunning back wall along side of a lovely series of glassy reflecting pools. it took us a while to orient ourselves and even think about ordering. But we finally settled on some lovely salads and several other dishes whose names I can't quite reproduce at this moment. I had a beautiful green salad and the makings of duck tacos. I can barely begin to tell you how delicious it all was. We agreed on the spot that we'd have to return there. Actually we began discussing book titles and contents and eventually realized we had been discussing "things" for over two hours. We never felt rushed and it was one of the most pleasant afternoon meals I've had while here. I put three new books on my Kindle during the course of the afternoon and look forward to getting into them after I finish this latest book I'm reading that takes place in Venice, by Donna Leon. I'm only a little way into this one but it looks like a good mystery and contains plenty of good descriptions of Venice sights and sounds.

We walked back via Avenido Benito Juarez to show Penny where 100% Natural and Llano park were and continued back to show her our sweet little courtyard hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting Penny who is English but living in Washington state, Mexico and Spain. I hope to visit her and her husband  in Widby Island while I'm on my trip across Canada this fall. Actually I'm hoping to begin that trip the last week of August, so I should call it a late summer visit. I look forward to it.

So..... always much talk about food in Oaxaca. But that's Oaxaca. Food, drink, art, textiles, architecture, music, ballet. Whew! So I'll confess that I finished the evening at 9:00 going around the corner to 100% Natural for a lovely glass of hot chocolate with Carol and Mike. A delicious way to end the day.
Abrazos,  Jackie